The Sociological Perspective of Tradition, Folkways, Beliefs, and Transculturalism
ABSTRACT
This is the usual general term when we deal with the study of culture. It must be noted that the general explanation of the term tradition is the transition of knowledge, skill, and attitude from one generation to the next generation. “Tradition as a general term refers to the customs, rituals, beliefs, folklore, and habits in a given ethnic group. When we speak about culture, the usual key concept is still on tradition because of the universality of the concept on the social experiences derived from that community.” The social phenomena of the folkways are generally presented by the psychological and cultural views as standard human actions of a distinct ethnic group. Generally, it is the unique, distinct, and isolated tradition and culture developed by the ancestors that have been passed from one generation to the next generation. The social development process of folkways is the way the social group thinks, acts, and lives based on the observation and conviction of certain social facts.
In the folkways, the group process operates by the intermediary of societal forces to define the distinct social life that is later on carried by the group members through learned behavior and repetitive observation of customs and habits in the community. The term belief is a product of the social experience that is usually shaped by sharing knowledge and ideas through the use of common sense to interpret the basic social facts in certain ethnic groups. Generally, this is the definition: “ Beliefs are the ideas, viewpoints, and attitudes of the particular group of society. They consist of fables, proverbs, myths, folklore, traditions, superstition, education, etc. that influence the ideas, values, emotions, perceptions, and attitudes of the members of the society. They also think and decide on a particular course of action which they believe conforms on the set social experience in the society.” Transculturalism is a relatively new approach that is being applied across a number of fields, including education, nursing and neonatal care, medicine, sports, social welfare, and business.
A. Tradition
This is the usual general
term when we deal with the study of culture. It must be noted that the general
explanation of the term tradition is the transition of knowledge, skill, and
attitude from one generation to the next generation. “Tradition as a general term refers to the customs, rituals,
beliefs, folklore, and habits in a given ethnic group. When we speak about culture,
the usual key concept is still on tradition because of the universality of the
concept on the social experiences derived from that community.”
The transmission of
knowledge, skill, and attitude is taken into consideration the oral and written
communication as the basis of human action processed by thought, imagination, and experiences in the exposure of human beings. It will lead to behavioral
adaptation in conformance with rules, rituals, customs, values, mores, folkways, and
other relevant prescriptions of culture. The inter-related factual information
needed in the study of tradition:
1. The human practices that have been embedded in their
social activities and experiences conform to the way of life in the ethnic
community. The social being provides the social model as transmitted by their
parents and families including the society that they live in. The individual
would speak his tradition along with his exposure to social activities and
experiences. The language, customs, traditions, mores, and other family life
that usual tradition persisted in the community or the ethnic place.
2. The social beliefs of the supernatural order are embraced by the conformity of nature that responds to the appreciation of
faith through religion and rituals. The study of tradition reflects the
societal belief in the existence of a supernatural order such as a god and
deity. This common tradition would now reflect by the reflection of the geographically located origin of religions such as Catholicism, Protestantism,
Buddhism, and Muslim. The existence of the deity and the respect of the ancestor
is common to those ethnic groups in some parts of Asia and Africa.
3. The human value provides them the mechanism to
understand the moral ground of action whether it is right or wrong, ethical and
unethical within the bounce of the social experience of the society. The
civilized and cultured society has a certain set of laws to secure peace and
order for the preservation of life and society. This is related to
religion and norms of a given ethnic race to follow on what is moral and
ethical of the human actions. The wrongful and immoral actions are sanctioned
by punishment set by the elders or council such as murder, homicide, rape,
physical injury, theft, and other crimes.
4. The use of distinct language to communicate
with the social group as being developed by oral and written form is a
traditional communicative process in order to deliver a specific message on the
human action grounded by culture. The personal information received in the
group interaction defines the language, dialect, and means of communication. It
is the language exposure that gives the individual a particular dialect not by
birth or race. It has something to do with the communicative culture that
responds to a particular tradition.
5. The creation of a family through the biological
union as a result of love or that forms part in the ritual and other
traditional practices within the specific geographical situation that may affect
climate, terrain, and other natural conditions. The geographical race of the
Caucasian, Mongolian, and Black races has biological implications for the
development of tradition and culture.
In sociology, the common
term that can study tradition is the traditional
authority which prescribed the influence of the monarch, king, and emperor on the beliefs, norms, mores, and the submissive culture of the
divine rights, absolute rights, and royal rights. This concept has been part
of the cultural process of submission of social rights to abide by the
prescribed political powers of the rulers. This is the political prescription
of what we call royal blood who has the right and privileges to rule the state
based on absolute masculine succession. It has been well placed in Europe
and Asia in the application of the term traditional authority.
The tradition has been
socially invented to conform to the intellect, thought, imagination, and experiences
of the social group. It is in this perspective that the concept of tradition is
within the realm of the study of culture. These are examples of tradition being
studied in culture:
1. In marriage and wedding celebrations that may
focus on the preparation and celebration of the couples. It emphasizes the
rituals in the wedding celebration, the sacrifices of the natural deity,
thanksgiving, and other wedding practices to solemnize the union of the
couples. The economic and familial security for the provision of dowry after
the marriage, There are instances that the elders and parents are bound to
follow the fixed marriage as part of their culture.
2. In funerals, there are rituals being done to
ensure a peaceful way for the spirits of the dead. The deity the rituals of the
dead, prayers, and the celebration of the afterlife. The social sacrifices and
other funeral offerings are the example of our love and care for the dead. The
social group intends to provide specific rituals and ceremonies to ensure the
peaceful journey of the spirits and souls of the dead.
3. The celebration of festivals, feasts, and other
traditional remembrances of deities, gods and goddesses, ancestors, and other
social occasions is common in ethnic groups. They symbolize thanksgiving,
adornment, appeasement, and other forms of celebration offerings to promote a positive aura in the natural and social order of time in their place.
4. The development of civilization for the
complex cultural activities is part and parcel of the development of the tradition
of literary works, poems, folksongs, and storytelling including artifacts of arts,
sculpture, painting, architectural structure
These are human
experiences that are built in the images of traditional beliefs and expression
on marriage, funerals, festivals, and other by-products of civilization. The
universality of social experiences from the tangible and non-tangible human
actions produced the development of tradition as they are molded by the
customs, rituals, beliefs, folklore, and habits of a given ethnic group.
B. Folkways
The social phenomena of
the folkways are generally presented by the psychological and cultural views as
standard human actions of a distinct ethnic group. Generally, it is the unique,
distinct and isolated tradition and culture developed by the ancestors which
have been passed from one generation to the next generation. The social
development process of folkways is the way the social group thinks, acts, and
lives based on the observation and conviction of certain social facts. In the
folkways, the group process operates by the intermediary of societal forces to
define the distinct social life that is later on carried by the group members
through learned behavior and repetitive observation of customs and habits in
the community.
Folkways are the expected behavior being
practiced in certain ethnic groups. They provide us a set of expected
behaviors to follow within the customs and habits of the ethnic groups. A good
example of the folkways in the community is the courtship and dating, which
prescribed certain behavioral practices that need to be followed as it is
distinctly complement the kind of customs and habits they have in that ethnic
group.
The term FOLKWAYS was
coined by William Graham Summer (1840-1910) in his book “A Study of the
Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores and Morals in 1906.
In the origin of folkways represents the physiological needs of the individual
to conform to the traditional practices confronted by the habitual prescription of
social activities in the ethnic group. Therefore, the origin of this concept
refers to the imperative human actions derived to imitate the tradition and
culture of a given society.
The idea of Summer (1906)
extends his phenomenological analysis of the societal force to convey the
transformation of folkways into custom based on the philosophical and
ethical view of tradition. The social interaction of the group members produces
constant repetition of behavioral acts based on observation, imagination, and
conviction of human experiences that later on will form part of habit and
custom. However, there are social issues to address the human experiences of
pleasure and pain as a means to metamorphose the societal welfare that will be
later on converted into folkways which will further transform into mores. The
social acceptance of particular folkways is part of the ethnocentrism in a
given society.
It must be noted that
Summer (1906) extends his interpretation of folkways in the unconscious and
recurrent needs of the social needs of man. It is reflected in the
physiological through the underlying idea that man is a social being. The human
existence is not simply food and water but the psychological transformation is
directed towards the environment as it may lead to the biological
transformation of man. Hence, instinctive human nature in folkways is just like
the flock of animals swaying and following the group direction that provides the
complemented action of the herd.
Furthermore, Summer
(1906) explained the centrality of the development process of folkways on the idea
that derives from the suggestive doctrine of the mind to mind. It is simply the
social interaction about the human knowledge of the different angles of culture
and tradition. The invention of knowledge through cooperation among members of
the group provides the development of folkways such as customs on rituals,
bathing, washing, eating, and other forms of social activities.
What is interesting in
the development of folkways is the false inference about social facts which are
the by-product of pseudo-knowledge:
1. The repetitive and coincidental social
evidences form part of the folkways as true observation of facts.
2. The conformance of mystic beliefs and ideals
as a result of the tradition and custom adoption for generations.
3. The irrational and incongruous action of
mystic phenomena.
4. The behavioral customs and mores that have
been passed from generation to next generation.
5. The ancient social beliefs and historical
accidents that have continuously affected the ethnic groups.
The folkways are the part
now of the tradition and custom that cannot be traced by its origin but the
true social value provides the vibrancy of societal activities. It also shows
respect for human action, particularly the elders. They are social makers of the
tradition and culture just like the rituals, traditional practices on
courtship, personal hygiene, communal action, festivities, and other social
inventions of the distinct culture of the community.
C. Beliefs
The term belief is a
product of the social experience that is usually shaped by shared
knowledge and ideas through the use of common sense to interpret the basic
social facts in certain ethnic groups. Generally, this is the definition: “ Beliefs are the ideas, viewpoints, and
attitudes of the particular group of society. They consist of fables,
proverbs, myths, folklore, traditions, superstition, education and etc. that
influence the ideas, values, emotions, perceptions, and attitudes of the members
of the society. They also think and decide on a particular course of action which
they believe conform on the sets social experience in the society.”
A common example of
this term is the usage of religious belief. It represents the shared ideas and
knowledge about the existence of supernatural orders or divinities in ancient times. It is a group perception being passed from other generation to
the next generation through storytelling, folk tales, and myths about the
experiences of the past on the existence of mystic beliefs. The existence of
such a thing is usually respected by worship of the divinity and deity
through rituals, sacrifices, and festivities.
This is to recognize the
important role of the human cycle of decay through the reality of death and
the natural blessing given in the times of abundance of harvest. It is also
interpreted by the mystic karma of the divinity and deity when calamities and
destruction are present in the ethnic group as a sign of disgust on a
particular observed human action that needs to be remedied through sacrifice or
offering to return positive energies in the community.
Generally, the concepts
of beliefs are presented by the cognitive experience in the collective
information along with the social views that are commonly presented in these ideas:
1. It has been generated by the group through the
explicit thought on the existence of things based on their observation and
perception of social fact. The cognitive thought responds to the social
influence as part of ideas and knowledge to believe what is being presented to
them as information in the family, clan, and community.
2. It is factual information generated by the
belief system that is qualitatively observed by specific social phenomena that
relate to the variables in the understanding of divinities and supernatural
order.
3. This ancient story was foretold by the ancestors
that they believe happened in the past. The myth as a belief system is
directly expressed by narrative resurrection that provides a better understanding
of the tradition and culture of a certain group.
4. The common usage of belief is the supernatural
causality related to divinities and other observable social facts. This transforms the respect of certain deities or divinities by our ancestors.
5. This is further articulated by a fictional short
story represented by animals or plants to describe the nature of human
existence. They are still part of the literature of the ethnic place as a
pseudo-knowledge in the preservation of relevant tradition and culture connected
with the symbolic presentation of a thing.
Finally, the term belief is a socially acceptable means to deliver the tradition and culture of certain
groups as directed by the knowledge and ideas in their evolving understanding
and exposure in the family, clan, friends, and other members of the society. This
is further transformed to a holistic societal belief on the study of
institutional dimensions in politics, education, philosophy, organization, and
even in business and industry.
D.
Transculturalism
Transculturalism is a relatively new
approach that is being applied across a number of fields, including education,
nursing and neonatal care, medicine, sports, social welfare, and business.
These are the related concepts in the study of transculturalism: (www.intleducenter.umd.edu,
2011). These are the following concepts
relevant to this field: (1) culture refers to norms and
practices of a particular group that are learned and shared and guide thinking,
decisions, and actions;(2) cultural values refer to the individual's
desirable or preferred way of acting or knowing something that is sustained
over a period of time and which governs actions or decisions; (3) ethnocentrism
is the perception that one's own way is best when viewing the world. Our
perspective is the standard by which all other perspectives are measured and
held to scrutiny.(4) ethnicity relates to large groups of people classified
according to common traits or customs; (5) race Though many definitions
exist, there appears to be no established agreement on any scientific
definition of race. What we do find though, is the general belief among the
scientific community that race has no biological or natural basis; and (6)ethnography
is the study of a culture. The methodological approach of ethnographic research
is to develop a heightened awareness of the culturally diverse needs of
individuals, is to define a field for observation for study of the environment
and its people, as well as the reciprocal relationship that exists between the
two (Tripp-Reimer & Dougherty, 1985).
Cited Publication :
CF Bueno (2012) Socio-Anthro: Sociology and Anthropology.
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